For the first time since the historic 2019 season, LSU is 1-0.
Let’s just take a second and let that breath. LSU opened the season on the road against a top 5 team in one of the hardest (but not the hardest) place to okay and defeated Clemson 17-10. LSU is 1-0, the monkey has been thrown off the back.
But within LSU’s win, there are four main elements that are worth noting and commenting on that should give LSU fans hope that the rest of the season could buck the trend of previous ones.
Offensive Line
Is Not A Weakness
I’ll start with a sort of a mea culpa – heading into the season, I was unconvinced that the offense line would be a strength of the team. I thought that replacing both tackles to the NFL would be a tough ask and the development we’ve seen so far has left something to be desired. Couple that with reports from fall camp that pointed to a nebulous and unconfirmed starting five left me worried for the season.
But against Clemson and a defense I expect to be playoff-caliber, we saw an offensive line that was able to hold their water and not a liability. The fact that I watched a game live and hardly thought about the line at all tells you everything: I would not call them a strength by any measure yet, but they are not a net drain on the outcome of the game.
Clemson recorded just a single sack, and it was by virtue of LSU having to extend the play rather than an assignment failure. On the attacking foot, LSU recorded over 100 yards rushing, 74 from Caden Durham. That won’t be sung from a mountaintop, but it was enough to get a job done, especially given that one of LSU’s two touchdowns came from a gap run in short yardage, something that has been a bugaboo for previous teams
I would hope and expect that as they continue to gel and form as unit, their play will only improve as the season progresses.
The Defense Is A Strength
Only a fool makes assumptions, but only an idiot makes extrapolated opinions.
But I liked what I saw from the LSU defense last night. Scratch that, I REALLY liked what I saw from the LSU defense last night.
Cade Klubnik is going to be playing on Sundays next fall, and LSU made him look pretty pedestrian Saturday night. He was able to create success game as the progressed by utilizing his legs to extend plays, but LSU adjusted and kept the Clemson offense to just one touchdown. In a sense, AJ Haulcy’s absence in the first half both didn’t and did matter as they only allowed a single touchdown while he was out, but then they allowed none when he was in.
What’s most encouraging was that it wasn’t due to one standout performance: West Weeks and PJ Woodland looked good, Mansoor Delane had a big interception that was him making a play on an overthrown ball, but it wasn’t a dominant performance. It was a simply a matter of the unit playing well overall. Harold Perkins was quiet for most of the game in the sense that Clemson was not able to place him in disadvantageous positions, until the end when defensive coordinator Blake Baker adjusted to Klubnik going mobile and allowed Perkins to do what he does best: hunt quarterbacks.
If LSU is going to achieve their goals this season, this is going to be what is going to have to happen to allow it.
They Moved On
The defining moment of the game came close to the end of the third quarter when Garrett Nussmeier connected with Barion Brown on a perfectly placed pass down the sideline that looked like it was the play of the weekend. The play went to replay review in what was assumed by many to verify the spot of the reception and if it was a touchdown or down at the one, only to shockingly – even to the ESPN crew and rule analyst – be overturned as a completion entirely.
LSU was forced to kick a field goal, and the attempt from Damien Ramos sailed wide after he came up gimpy on the connection.
It was a huge swing in the proverbial momentum, one that felt all too familiar for LSU in these season opening games. What should have put the Tigers ahead by 7, and then by 3, turned into nothing and good starting field position for Clemson. This felt like the moment that the Brian Kelly-led Tigers would fold mentally.
But that didn’t happen. In fact, the opposite happened. LSU played better after that moment.
The defense forced a three and out, and then the offense went on an 11-play, 73-yard drive that concluded with a fade route to Trey’dez Green to put the Tigers back on top, and this time it would stand. To their credit, Clemson had a pair of 42-yard drives sandwiching a three and out in the rest of the game, but the LSU defense found ways to adjust mid-drive and bow down, keeping Clemson from leveling the game late.
This, more than anything else, may be the defining moment of the game and what could make this LSU different than the previous four.
The 1-0 Mentality
LSU is 1-0. Let’s say it again because that’s a huge mental block to get over and it snaps the infuriating streak, but i’m talking about a different 1-0.
LSU came out wearing warmup shirts that say 1-0. That has been plastered all over the LSU facility, and it makes sense given the context surround the game, a top 10 game to open the season. But after watching last night, I don’t think the 1-0 mindset is necessarily about being 1-0 after the Clemson game, it’s about going 1-0. Let me explain.
What we saw last night was a focus and intensity missing from previous LSU games, and I think that has everything to do with LSU blocking out everything that wasn’t to do with the game in front of them. It obviously worked well and helped them turn the corner following the big swing in momentum following The Incomplete Touchdown and the following missed field goal and I think they will continue to adopt it.
Next weekend against Louisiana Tech won’t be about being 2-0 after the game, it’ll be about going 1-0 again. And again. And again. And again.
The “one game at a time” mantra is cliche, but hell, given how narrative-laden the LSU football program has been over the past year, maybe it’s time to go full bore into it and block out the noise.
Wait, that sounds familiar.
